International Children’s Book Day was first celebrated in 1966.  It was organized by Jella Lepman, founder of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), and it is designed to encourage families, teachers, and children around the world to participate in reading events in their local communities.  Events are often organized in libraries, schools, and community centers, and families and children are invited to participate.  Every year, a different international section of IBBY hosts this children’s books event on or around April 2, which is Hans Christian Andersen’s Birthday.  The host country picks a theme and invites a well-known author and illustrator to create a message to children around the world.  The United States is hosting ICBD this year.  The message is “The Music of Words.”  Margarita Engle wrote the messaging, and Roger Mello illustrated the poster.  For more information on International Children’s Book Day on April 2, visit http://www.ibby.org/  See picture of poster at https://www.waterford.org/resources/5-ideas-celebrate-international-childrens-book-day-april-2nd/  Readers, what children’s book or character in a children’s book do you remember?  I remember Babar the Elephant stories.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant   

Six sought-after recipes from 'Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy' by Maria Pasquale 28th March 2021  The recipes are listed in metric and US measurements and have been adapted for home use by the restaurant or chef.  https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/stanley-tucci-searching-for-italy-recipes/index.html

The Barack Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago, will start pre-construction work in April 2021.  You can learn more about the proposed design on the official Obama Foundation website here.  The Obama Presidential Center was initially proposed in 2016 with its current form and location.  Jackson Park already houses the Museum of Science and Industry and a golf course along as well as its own historical significance.  Consequently, the proposal has been subject to a federal review since November 2017.  Now the review is complete, preliminary work will take place in April 2021 with the actual construction to commence in the Fall.  Ann-Marie Cahill  https://bookriot.com/obama-presidential-center/  

When James Murray wrote the definition for behove what was then The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (only much later the Oxford English Dictionary) he described it as “mainly a literary word”.  Some modern stylists have called it archaic or a fossil, but it’s some way from that, though almost always in writing and very rarely in the spoken language.  It is a little better known in the US, where the behoove spelling is standard.  The origin is Old English behōfian, from bihōf, utility, whose adjective is bihóflíc, useful or necessary.  The main sense of the verb was need or necessity.  It’s one of those few expressions in modern English that is almost always impersonal. The empty agent it is usually in charge of the verb.  Behove can also appear with negative sense, for which a common marker word in the UK is ill.  Ill behoves implies acting inappropriately or improperly.  Americans use this form only rarely, but use behoove with a wider range of modifying words, such as would, might and certainly.  https://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-beh1.htm   

Three Designers Who Helped Light the Way for Women in Architecture--a look at the careers of Helen Liu Fong, Annie Graham Rockfellow, and Norma Merrick Sklarek.  Read extensive article and see pictures at https://savingplaces.org/stories/three-designers-who-helped-light-the-way-for-women-in-architecture#.YBlKtuhKiUk   

Baked Boston Scrod recipe http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/best-of-best-from-northeast/Baked_Boston_Scrod.php   

The National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY will celebrate the inclusion of extraordinary women into the Hall at the biennial in-person induction ceremony on October 2, 2021 at the NWHF’s new home, the recently revitalized 1844 Seneca Knitting Mill building.  The NWHF is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in New York State and will plan carefully to ensure that the in-person portion of Induction Weekend is safe for all attendees.  In addition, the NWHF will host a live virtual streaming of the ceremony, which will be free to the public.  Ticket sales will open in April or May 2021 when there is a better understanding of safety protocols for in-person events.  Registration for the virtual livestream of the Induction Ceremony will become available as the event gets closer.  Read about and see pictures of the nine honorees at https://www.womenofthehall.org/nwhfinduction/2021induction/   

bibelot (plural bibelots)  noun  A bauble, knickknack or trinket. quotations ▼ A miniature book of an elegant design.  From an onomatopoeic root bib-.  Compare English bauble and Old French baubel.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bibelot   

March 29, 2021  Last week, the Louvre launched a new website where digitized, high-resolution versions of more than 482,000 artworks can be viewed—including many that are in storage.  That’s 75 percent of the Louvre’s entire collection, per a representative from the museum.  A host of details accompanies each listing:  materials and techniques, date and place of production, and object history, as well as an interactive map.  https://news.artnet.com/art-world/louvre-just-put-75-percent-collection-online-newly-launched-database-1955448   

How To Make Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs by Sara Kate Gillingham 

Per cup of water use the following: 1 cup chopped purple cabbage = blue on white eggs, green on brown eggs

1 cup red onion skins = lavender or red eggs

1 cup yellow onion skins = orange on white eggs, rusty red on brown eggs

1 cup shredded beets = pink on white eggs, maroon on brown eggs

2 tablespoons ground turmeric = yellow eggs

1 bag Red Zinger tea = lavender eggs

Add one tablespoon white vinegar to every cup of strained dye liquid.

For every dozen eggs, plan on using at least four cups of dye liquid.  https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-vibrant-naturally-dyed-easter-eggs-holiday-projects-from-the-kitchn-112957   

A piece of celestial good luck likely made it easier for engineers to successfully refloat the giant container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week.  The March 28, 2021 so-called full "Worm moon" led to a high spring tide--about 18 inches (46 centimeters) above normal--on March 29, which eased the process of straightening out and dislodging the ship, according to NASA.  Traffic resumed in both directions of the Suez Canal on March 29 after tug boats spent several hours working to free the bow of the Ever Given container ship after dislodging the stern earlier in the day.  The successful refloating was met with triumph and relief, as hundreds of vessels that have been trapped in the pivotal shipping lane since March 23 prepare to restart their journeys.  Katie Hunt  https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/30/world/worm-moon-spring-tide-suez-canal-container-ship-scn/index.html   Suez Canal Opens, but Shipping Will Be Snarled for Months  Wall Street Journal, p. A1  March 31, 2021   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2345  March 31, 2021 

The idiom knock one’s socks off originated in the mid-1800s, though with a different meaning than it carries today.  Knocking a person’s socks off  today mostly has to do with impressing or surprising someone.  However, in the mid-19th century, there is an example of it used with the meaning of “someone or something that is thoroughly defeated.”  This example comes from the Logansport Democractic Pharos newspaper, January 1856:  “The promptness and certainty with which the Ague King’s American remedy for Chills and Fever, knocks the socks off that disease.”  https://knowyourphrase.com/knock-your-socks-off

The legend of Faust is based upon a real person, Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480-1540), a magician, astrologer, and alchemist.  The story has been tackled countless times, from Christopher Marlow in his play Doctor Faustus and Goethe in his play Faust to The Simpsons episode “Bart Sells His Soul”.

Around the World in 130 Chicken-Soup Recipes--a new cookbook is devoted entirely to the soothing, healing meal by Kayla Stewart  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/international-chicken-soup-recipes

cheftestant  Competitor on a cooking show.  Coined by recapper Keckler on televisionwithoutpity.com, it is the combination of the words "chef" and "contestant."  Inspired by Bravo channel's "Top Chef."  posted by missmez June 21, 2007  https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheftestant 

QUOTES BY PLAYWRIGHT GEORGE BERNARD SHAW  “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”  Man and Superman * “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend . . . if you have one."  Shaw to Winston Churchill  "Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one." *  Churchill to Shaw  “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” * “You see things; you say, 'Why?'  But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?”  Back to Methuselah *  “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.” * “I often quote myself.  It adds spice to my conversation.” * https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/33134-i-often-quote-myself-it-adds-spice-to-my-conversation

The suborder Myomorpha contains 1,137 species of mouse-like rodents, nearly a quarter of all mammal species.  Included are mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, lemmings, and voles.  They are grouped according to the structure of their jaws and molar teeth.  They are characterized by their myomorphous zygomasseteric system, which means that both their medial and lateral masseter muscles are displaced forward, making them adept at gnawing.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myomorpha 

FROM ELLIE KRIEGER  Cool Cucumber Soup   https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/cool-cucumber-soup-recipe-1939996  Leeks and fresh dill take cozy split pea soup from drab to fab  Split Pea Soup With Leeks and Dill  https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/split-pea-soup-leeks-and-dill/17720/

March 26, 2021  Returning to Riva:  Close Reading a Little-Known Short Story by Franz Kafka:  Daniel Heller-Roazen on Fleeting Narrators, Disappearing Text, and "The Hunter Gracchus."  Between 1916 and 1917, a most unusual person makes a small number of fleeting appearances in Franz Kafka’s unpublished papers.  From Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons by Daniel Heller-Roazen.  Used with the permission of Princeton University Press.  Copyright © 2021 by Daniel Heller-Roazen.  Read extensive article on four versions of a short story by Kafka at  https://lithub.com/returning-to-riva-close-reading-a-little-known-short-story-by-franz-kafka/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily:%20March%2026%2C%202021&utm_term=lithub_master_list 

Larry McMurtry, the prolific and popular author who took readers back to the old American West in his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lonesome Dove” and returned them to modern-day landscapes in works such as his emotional tale of a mother-daughter relationship in “Terms of Endearment,” died March 25, 2021 at the age of 84.  McMurtry, who had in his later years split his time between his small Texas hometown of Archer City and Tucson, Arizona, wrote dozens of books, including novels, biographies and essay collections.  He simultaneously worked as a bookseller and screenwriter, co-writing the Oscar-winning script for the movie “Brokeback Mountain.”  He wrote his first novel, “Horseman, Pass by,” at the age of 25 in 1961.  It was made into the movie “Hud” starring Paul Newman that came out two years later.  McMurtry opened his first used and rare bookstore in 1971 in Washington, D.C., and later opened other stores in Houston, Dallas and Tucson.  In the mid-1980s, lured by cheap real estate, he opened his Booked Up store in Archer City.  Eventually, the store in Archer City was the only one remaining.  He downsized the store—both in volume and storefronts—in an effort dubbed The Last Book Sale, but retained about 200,000 volumes.  He had about 28,000 books in his nearby home in Archer City.  “I’m very attached to the books.  I need them.  I need to be among them,” he told The Associated Press in 2014.  Jamie Stengle  https://apnews.com/article/arizona-dallas-larry-mcmurtry-movies-tucson-c42dce8a2ef5882d3695c6b5e9356ba2 

Children's author Beverly Cleary died March 25, 2021 at the age of 104.   Cleary was the creator of some of the most authentic characters in children's literature—Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and the irascible Ramona Quimby.  Generations of readers tore around the playground, learned to write in cursive, rebelled against tuna fish sandwiches and acquired all the glorious scrapes and bruises of childhood right along with Ramona.  Cleary's simple idea—to write about the kids in her own neighborhood—ensured that her books have never gone out of print.  "I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids.  That's what I wanted to read about when I was growing up," Cleary told NPR's Linda Wertheimer in 1999.  "I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school.  And in my childhood, many years ago, children's books seemed to be about English children, or pioneer children.  And that wasn't what I wanted to read.  And I think children like to find themselves in books."  Her writing style—clear, direct, uncomplicated—mirrored the author's own trajectory.  Cleary was still a young girl when she decided to become a children's book author.  By the 1940s she'd become a children's librarian in Portland, Ore., and she remembered boys in particular would ask her:  "Where are the books about kids like us?"  Zoe Chace  https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/311881785/beverly-cleary-creator-of-ramona-quimby-dies-at-104 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2344  March 29, 2021 

A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party.  The term is popular amongst conspiracy theory promoters in referring to covert operations of various governments and cabals.  The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as a purely figurative expression to mean "a deliberate misrepresentation of someone’s affiliation or motives".  It was later used to describe a ruse in naval warfare whereby a vessel flew the flag of a neutral or enemy country in order to hide its true identity.  The tactic was originally used by pirates and privateers to deceive other ships into allowing them to move closer before attacking them.  It later was deemed an acceptable practice during naval warfare according to international maritime laws, provided the attacking vessel displayed its true flag once an attack had begun.  The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and foreign military aggression.  Operations carried out during peacetime by civilian organizations, as well as covert government agencies, can (by extension) also be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag#:~:text=A%20false%20flag%20operation%20is,of%20various%20governments%20and%20cabals. 

Brian Donnelly (born November 4, 1974), known professionally as Kaws (stylized as KAWS), is an American artist and designer.  His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his career in the 1990s, initially painted in 2D and later realized in 3D.  Some of his characters are his own creations while others are reworked versions of existing icons.  Kaws' sculptures range in size from a few inches to ten meters tall, and are made from various materials including fiberglass, aluminum, wood, bronze, and a steel pontoon inflatable raft.  Kaws' influences come from traditional high art painters like Gerhard Richter, Claes Oldenburg, and Chuck Close, and he has been compared to the likes of Andy Warhol for his cross-market appeal and ability to blur lines between commercial and fine art.  His work is exhibited in galleries and museums, held in the permanent collections of public institutions, and avidly collected by individuals including music producer Swizz Beatz, internet figure PewDiePie, rapper Pharrell Williams, and members of South Korean group BTS.  A number of books illustrating his work have been published.  Kaws lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, creating sculptures, acrylic paintings on canvas, and screen prints while also collaborating commercially, predominantly on limited edition toys, but also clothing, skateboard decks, and other products.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaws 

Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body, accounting for about one-third of its protein composition.  It’s one of the major building blocks of bones, skin, muscles, tendons, and ligaments.  Collagen is also found in many other body parts, including blood vessels, corneas, and teeth.  You can think of it as the “glue” that holds all these things together.  In fact, the word comes from the Greek word “kólla,” which means glue.  You may be able to help your body produce this important protein by making sure you get plenty of the following nutrients:  Vitamin C.  Large amounts are found in citrus fruits, bell peppers, and strawberries.  Proline. Large amounts are found in egg whites, wheat germ, dairy products, cabbage, asparagus, and mushrooms.  Glycine. Large amounts are found in pork skin, chicken skin, and gelatin, but glycine is also found in various protein-containing foods.  Copper.  Large amounts are found in organ meats, sesame seeds, cocoa powder, cashews, and lentils.  https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/collagen   

A pig in a poke is a thing that is bought without first being inspected, and thus of unknown authenticity or quality.  The idiom is attested in 1555:  I wyll neuer bye the pyg in the poke Thers many a foule pyg in a feyre cloke.  "Poke" is a bag, so the image is of a concealed item being sold.  Starting in the 19th century, this idiom was explained as a confidence trick where a farmer would substitute a cat for a suckling pig when bringing it to market.  When the buyer discovered the deception, he was said to "let the cat out of the bag", that is, to learn of something unfortunate prematurely, hence the expression "letting the cat out of the bag", meaning to reveal that which is secret.  In common law, buyers have the right to inspect goods before purchase.  Find similar expressions in other languages at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke 

Colorful, comforting and infinitely tasty, it's little wonder that pizza is one of the world's most beloved dishes.  It's a food that has transcended its Italian origins to find new takes--from pineapple-topped pizzas to deep dish Chicago-style pies.  No wonder it has whole days devoted to it around the globe--from January's World Pizza Day to National Pizza Day, which takes place in the United States every February 9.  But while we think of it as a 20th-century global phenomenon, pizza didn't only start traveling when it crossed the Atlantic.  In fact, it made its first cross-cultural journey about 2,000 years earlier.  "The term and concept is a very old one," says Diego Zancani, emeritus professor of medieval and modern languages at Oxford University and author of "How We Fell in Love with Italian Food."  "The Ancient Greeks had 'pissa' or 'pita', and a recent study connected the term 'pizza' with the various 'pita' that exist all over the Mediterranean.  So the concept is very old--but [ancient pissa] was bread, sometimes fried and sometimes baked, possibly with condiments on it."  The food popped up again--this time as "pizza"--in 997 CE.  A rental document for a house in Gaeta, north of Naples, promised to pay the owner pork meat and pizza--but even then, Zancani says, the mysterious "pizza" would have been pieces of bread.  Fast forward to 1570, and the Pope's head chef had a recipe for pizza--but it was "essentially a cake," says Zancani, made with almond and sugar.  Julia Buckley  Read extensive article and see pictures at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/pizza-day-history-naples/index.html   

WORDPLAY  embarrassment of riches  (An embarrassment of riches is an idiom that means an overabundance of something, or too much of a good thing, that originated in 1738 as John Ozell's translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726), by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval.  The idiom has also inspired other works and been included in their titles.  This includes:  The Embarrassment of Riches (1906), a play by Louis K. Anspacher, and a 1918 drama film of the same name based on the Anspacher play; a 2006 music album of this name by Elephant Micah; the history book The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama; and An Embarrassment of Riches, a 2000 novel written by Filipino author Charlson Ong.)   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassment_of_riches#:~:text=This%20includes%3A%20The%20Embarrassment%20of,a%20play%20by%20Louis%20K.  *  blizzard of litter  *  riches of the earth (plants growing from dirt)  *  no good deed goes unpunished (The phrase 'No good deed goes unpunished' is a sardonic commentary on the frequency with which acts of kindness backfire on those who offer them.  In other words, those who help others are doomed to suffer as a result of their being helpful.  It has been attributed to several luminaries, including Billy Wilder, writer Clare Booth Luce, American financier John P. Grier, banker Andrew W. Mellon, and Oscar Wilde, although its actual origin has never been established.  The phrase appears in Brendan Gill's 1950 book The Trouble of One House.  The phrase is featured prominently in the song "No Good Deed" from the hit Broadway musical Wicked.  A satirical poem by Franklin Pierce Adams with the title, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (So Shines a Good Deed in a Naughty World)", also exists.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_good_deed_goes_unpunished)   

A series of paintings and sketches created by JRR Tolkien while he was writing The Lord of the Rings are to be included in the epic fantasy novel for the first time since its publication in 1954.  Tolkien was always modest about his abilities as an artist: although a handful of his illustrations were featured in The Hobbit, the author described himself as “rather crushed” by comments from one critic that the images “show no reflection of his literary talent and imagination”, adding:  “all the more so because I entirely agree with him” (CS Lewis reviewed the pictures and maps as “admirable”).  In the middle of writing The Lord of the Rings, in 1939, he told his publisher that the work was “laborious”, and that “I should have no time or energy for illustration.  I never could draw, and the half-baked intimations of it seem wholly to have left me.  A map (very necessary) would be all I could do.”  But he went on to create a range of drawings, illustrations, maps and sketches as he told the story of Frodo and Sam’s quest, many as pictorial aids as he wrote his expansive story, and some for his own pleasure.   Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/25/jrr-tolkiens-own-illustrations-appear-in-lord-of-the-rings-for-the-first-time   

March 25, 2021  Deep in the former royal forest of Bercé, in France's Loire region, a 230-year-old tree comes crashing to the ground with thunderous intensity.  Just a sapling during the French Revolution, the 65-foot-tall oak tree is one of many being felled as part of ongoing efforts to rebuild Notre Dame.  The tree eventually will join 1,000 other oaks being used to reconstruct the wooden lattice of the roof and replace the base of the fallen spire engulfed by the blaze that devastated the Gothic building almost two years ago, in April 2019.  French president Emmanuel Macron dropped the idea of a contemporary redesign for Notre Dame's 315-foot spire--originally added by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in 1859--before opting instead for an identical restoration.  Saskya Vandoorne  See pictures at https://www.cnn.com/style/article/notre-dame-rebuild-oak-trees/index.html  Thank you, Muse reader!   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2343  March 26, 2021 

A.Word.a.Day with Anu Garg

Turveydropian  (tuhr-vee-DROH-pee-uhn)  adjective  Overly concerned with one’s appearance, demeanor, etc.  After Mr. Turveydrop, a character overly concerned with deportment, in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, 1852.  Earliest documented use:  1876.

Gallionic  (gal-ee-AHN-ik)  adjective  Indifferent or uncaring.  After Gallio, a Roman senator, who refused to take action in a dispute.  Earliest documented use:  1920.

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day

From:  Andrew Pressburger   Subject:  Faustian  There are several instances in the operatic repertoire of the Faust legend.  Probably the most famous is the one by the 19th-century French composer, Charles Gounod, in which the aging philosopher offers his soul to Mephistopheles if the latter arranges for him to become young again and gain the love of the innocent young woman, Marguerite.  In the end, Faust is damned, while the supposedly errant girl’s soul ascends to heaven.  The oratorio The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz (the composer referred to it as a “dramatic legend”) shows Faust wandering in the wilderness in search of rejuvenation and true love, only to fall afoul of the devil’s machinations.  The Czech composer Leos Janacek based his opera The Makropoulos Case on Karel Capek’s play of the same name.  In it an old actress wishes for eternal life, but finally realizes that, once deprived of youthful vigour, life is not worth living.  From:  Andrew Pressburger  Subject:  dunce  Undoubtedly the most famous usage of this eponym is Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad, at once a satirical send-up of the social affectations in British society and of the pitiful publications by Pope’s contemporary poetasters.   Eighteenth-century literature provided copious examples of such nonsense, or--as Pope himself elsewhere admonished--“Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.”

From:  Marvant Duhon  Subject:  Duns Scotus and contemporaries  Duns Scotus had a disciple, William of Occam (1287-1347), who is often misunderstood today.  His Razor was the principle that you MUST NOT multiply causes, which is often simplified as that you must choose the simplest explanation that describes something.  To Occam this meant that, not just in theology but in every subject, the only relevant explanation was “God wills it”.  And you only understood that explanation through the light of faith alone.  All other explanations, such as ones using mathematics, were false.

From:  Alex McCrae  Subject:  Faustian and dunce  “A Confederacy of Dunces” is the title of John Kennedy Toole’s farcical novel, whose lead character, the pudgy, delusional Ignatius J. Reilly was inspired by Jonathan Swift who said, “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by a sign that the dunces are in a conspiracy against him.”  https://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail971.html

You aced your midterm, finished the research for your final project and only have weeks until you graduate.  Even though you’re on track to pass your courses, suddenly you begin to lose all the momentum you had at the beginning of the term.  Where did all your drive go?  If you’re struggling to read assignments, forgetting to turn things in on time or procrastinating with your coursework, you aren’t alone.  You’ve come down with senioritis.  “Keep a positive attitude through the end and keep reminding yourself of your end goal,” Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) academic advisor Abby Tincher says.  Ashley Wallis  Find tips for curing senioritis at https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/2018/10/what-is-senioritis   

THRILLING THISTLE  The artichoke was named the official state vegetable of California in 2013.  California produces 99 percent of the annual U.S. crop of fresh market artichokes.  The drive to name the official state food was organized by a radio station in San Francisco and was based on votes made through Facebook.  Other foods nominated for the drive included almonds, avocados, crab, sourdough bread and grapes/wine.  Kristen Cloud  https://www.theshelbyreport.com/2013/04/10/artichoke-named-official-state-vegetable-of-california/  See also https://whataboutthefood.com/artichoke-state-vegetable/

See list of state foods at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_foods and It's a scandal:  Oklahoma declares watermelon a vegetable at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/18/usa.matthewweaver 

Misfortune makes strange bedfellows . . . The Portrait of a Lady, a novel first published in 1881by Henry James (1843-1916)

The origin of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses is difficult to find.  One of the best descriptions is over on Wise Geek, where they go through several, optimism-focused theories ranging from the symbolism of roses and rose gardens to the Victorians to map-makers' glasses to gazing through the bottom of a wine glass.  There are also references to the book Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes and written in 1861, but it's unclear if this is the first use of the term.  A more curious suggestion is that the term comes from the use of goggles on chickens to keep them from pecking feathers off each other.  An article about chicken eyeglasses at Ask.com states that "rose-colored lenses as the coloring is thought to prevent a chicken wearing them from recognizing blood on other chickens, which may increase the tendency for abnormal injurious behavior.  They were mass-produced and sold throughout the United States as early as the beginning of the 20th century."  This seems like an odd association of the term since rose-colored glasses accentuate reds unless chickens see red differently than humans.  Regardless, it may be contrary to our usage of the idiom.  No matter what the origin of the idiom is, seeing the world through rose-colored glasses really does make the world a better place.  https://www.thoughtco.com/i-learned-about-rose-colored-glasses-31496 

Comedian, actress, singer, and writer Sarah Silverman referred to “before the pandemic” as pre-pan on a TV talk show March 18, 2021.  

Emily Dickinson’s black cake is a traditional fruit cake, but pause before you crack a joke about modern versions of such desserts.  Dense, dark, brandy-soaked, and full of syrupy raisins, this molasses-rich original is worlds away from the much-maligned commercial fruitcakes available in the United States today.  It’s also massive.  Dickinson’s original recipe calls for 19 eggs, five pounds of raisins, and one and a half pounds of citron, an often-candied fruit that tastes like a thick-rinded, less-acidic lemon.  Beaten by hand, the resulting batter weighed more than 20 pounds.  Baked, then wrapped in cheesecloth and soaked in brandy for at least a month, the finished cakes were likely gifted to Dickinson’s friends and neighbors.  While some bakers have adapted the recipe to incorporate contemporary ingredients and more manageable quantities, purists insist on following the original as written in Dickinson’s sloping hand.  To reproduce the recipe as Emily would have baked it (with the addition of modern oven and tablet technology), staff at Harvard’s Houghton Library made a how-to video.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/emily-dickinsons-black-cake 

There's some debate over whether the phrase should be 'tinker's dam'--a small dam to hold solder, used by tinkers when mending pans, or 'tinker's damn'--a tinker's curse, considered of little significance because tinkers were reputed to swear habitually.  If we go back to 1877, in the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, Edward Knight puts forward this definition:  "Tinker's-dam--a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder.  The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless."  That version of events has gone into popular folklore and many people believe it.  Knight may well have been a fine mechanic but there has to be some doubt about his standing as an etymologist.  There is no corroborative evidence for his speculation and he seems to have fallen foul of the curse of folk etymologists--plausibility.  If an ingenious story seems to neatly fit the bill then it must be true.  Well, in this case it isn't.  The Victorian preference of 'dam' over 'damn' may also owe something to coyness over the use of a profanity in polite conversation.  "There never was a book gotten up by authority and State pay, that was worth a tinker's cuss".  So, we can forget about plumbing. The earlier phrase simply migrated the short distance from 'curse' to 'damn' to give us the proper spelling of the phrase tinker's damn. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tinkers-damn.html

Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement. - William Morris, designer, poet, and novelist (24 Mar 1834-1896)  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2342  March 24, 2021

Hamlet, in full Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, was written about 1599–1601 and published in a quarto edition in 1603 from an unauthorized text, with reference to an earlier play.  The First Folio version was taken from a second quarto of 1604 that was based on Shakespeare’s own papers with some annotations by the bookkeeper.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hamlet-by-Shakespeare

Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  He is chief counsellor of the play's villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia.  Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play,  Polonius's most famous lines are found in Act 1 Scene 3 ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be"; "To thine own self be true") and Act 2 Scene 2 ("Brevity is the soul of wit"; and "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't") while others have become paraphrased aphorisms ("Clothes make the man"; "Old friends are the best friends").  Also, the line he speaks when he is killed by Hamlet in Act 3 scene 4 ("Oh, I am slain!") has been subject to parody and ridicule due to its obviousness.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonius 

Making white soup from Pride and Prejudice makes you have a real appreciation for the amount of effort that went into cooking in Jane Austen’s era.  See recipe and link to other literary recipes at  https://www.inliterature.net/food-in-literature/main-meals/soup/2017/07/pride-and-prejudice-white-soup.html  recipe adapted from John Farley’s London Art of Cooking (1783) using notes by Julie Sikkink from the website Republic of Pemberley 

A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events.  The earliest known reference to walking a red carpet in literature is in the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus, written in 458 BC.  When the title character returns from Troy, he is greeted by his wife Clytemnestra who offers him a red path to walk upon:  Now, dearest husband, come, step from your chariot.  But do not set to earth, my lord, the conquering foot That trod down Troy.  Servants, do as you have been bidden; Make haste, carpet his way with crimson tapestries, Spread silk before your master’s feet; Justice herself Shall lead him to a home he never hoped to see.  Phillip Vellacott, The Oresteian Trilogy, Penguin 1973  Carpeting in other colors may replace red in some instances to honor a certain cause or for a sponsored event, the sponsor's logo colors, such as a "green carpet" to promote environmental awareness, or for the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, an orange carpet is used instead to go with the network's primary imaging color.  MTV uses a blue colored carpet for their Video Music Awards  The premiere of the film Detective Pikachu used a yellow carpet to match the color of the lead character.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_carpet 

'Get your goat' is recorded in the US book Life in Sing Sing, 1904, which goat is given as a slang term for anger.  The phrase originated in the US and the first entry in print that I can find comes from a fanciful story about a burst water pipe that was printed in the US newspaper The Stevens Point Daily Journal, May 1909:  "Wouldn't that get your goat?  We'd been transferring the same water all night from the tub to the bowl and back again."  The expression took a few years to cross the Atlantic.  The first non-US citation isn't found until 1924 in the English author John Galsworthy's story White Monkey, and even there it is clearly seen as a recent innovation:  "That had got the chairman's goat!  -  Got his goat?  What expressions they used nowadays!"  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/get-your-goat.html

Food Timeline   Ever wonder how the ancient Romans fed their armies?  What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail?  Who invented the potato chip . . . .and why?  Food history presents a fascinating buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts.  Some experts say it's impossible to express this topic in exact timeline format.  They are correct.  Most foods are not invented; they evolve.  Lynne Olver created the Food Timeline in 1999 (see the "about this site" below).  In 2020, Virginia Tech University Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS) collaborated on a plan to offer Virginia Tech as a new home for the physical book collection and the web resource.  Lynne Olver's book collection is joining the more than 5,000 volumes that Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) has relating to food and drink history.  We now have more than 7,500 books and 125 manuscripts on aspects of cooking, food, drink, and agricultural history!  https://foodtimeline.org/  See also https://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaqindex.html 

It’s been more than 35 years since you published The House on Mango Street.  Why do you think this novel has resonated with so many readers?  I think that I was able to reach non-readers as well as book lovers because it’s a small, slender book.  It doesn’t intimidate non-readers and it’s written in a language that’s very simple.  So even if you grew up in Taipei, Oslo or Chicago, people recognize something of themselves in that story.  It becomes a universal story and that’s what I wanted.  I never say it’s Chicago in the book.  Stephanie Kim  See NPR interview with author Sandra Cisneros at https://www.wbez.org/stories/for-sandra-cisneros-winning-the-prestigious-fuller-award-is-a-reconciliation-with-chicago/7ce43498-2a06-476d-b6fc-1cfc7705fd6a  Sandra Cisneros is the 9th recipient of the Fuller Award, which the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame created to honor the city’s greatest living writers. 

Learn how to make quick pickled red onions in just 30 minutes with just 4 easy ingredients!  posted by Ali  https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/quick-pickled-red-onions/  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Cricket is an illustrated literary magazine for children published in the United States, founded in September 1973 by Marianne Carus whose intent was to create "The New Yorker for children."   Each issue of Cricket is 48 pages.  The magazine is published nine times a year (monthly, with some of the summer months combined) by the Carus Publishing Company of Peru, Illinois.  Its target audience is children from 9 to 14 years old.  Cricket publishes original stories, poems, folk tales, articles and illustrations by such notable artists as Trina Schart Hyman, the magazine's art director from 1973 to 1979.  Hyman contributed to the magazine until her death in 2004.  Carus has solicited materials from well-known authors and illustrators, including Lloyd Alexander, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Hilary Knight, William Saroyan, Ursula K. Le Guin, Eric Carle, Stacy Curtis, Wallace Tripp, Charles Ghigna and Paul O. Zelinsky.  Cricket also runs contests and publishes work by its readers.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(magazine)  Marianne Carus died on March 3, 2121 at the age of 92. 

Capturing panoramas of the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we reside, might seem like a daunting task considering it is, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, about 100,000 light-years across.  But Finnish astrophotographer JP Metsavainio has spent almost 12 years stitching together 234 frames to create a mosaic of 125 degrees of sky.  The panorama, which shows 20 million stars, captures the space between the Taurus and Cygnus constellations and was completed on March 16, 2021.  Eoin McSweeney  See graphics at https://www.cnn.com/style/article/finnish-astrophotographer-milkyway-mosaic-scli-intl/index.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2341  March 22, 2021